Space Careers For The Rest Of Us
In ref to skilled blue collar workers (i.e. plumbers, electricians, mechanics, etc.) in space, we will know that space is truly open when we have our first of those workers on the moon. For instance, we can't depend on PhD's to keep a lunar human waste control system functioning.
— Homer Hickam (@realhomerhickam) October 1, 2020
Watch out for those Moon drifts.
The first rigs that must drill for ice had better have specialists as well, with plenty of 3-d printing material and printers for newly modified kit, waiting to be tried when the first configuration does not work. Drilling, like Civil Engineering is *very* site specific.
Call in Bruce Willis! “I have been drilling holes in the earth for 30 years. And I have never, NEVER missed a depth that I have aimed for. And by God, I am not gonna miss this one!” (from Armageddon)
I’ve said for a long time, before they land a habitat on Mars, they need to land a mobile crane and a bulldozer.
Not sure why he said that. ISS has been operating with PhDs and test pilots maintaining the potty, doing the dusting and cleaning and anything else required for 20 hears. Sure, once Musk can send a Starship with some ‘ordinary citizens’, maybe then they will get some relief.
I had in mind a sewage system for hundreds of people in a gravity well rather than the small but complex devices required in microgravity on the ISS & space capsules which our professional astronauts naturally have to learn to maintain. Once we start working on the moon over a long duration, however, I believe we will need technicians to maintain the infrastructure. Our South Pole Station is a good example, to an extent, of how that might evolve. However, I foresee some lunar towns to be more industrial than scientific, meaning the majority of their population will be “blue collar” technicians of some stripe with management similar to the old “company towns” that used to exist across the USA and the world.
Hahahaha I’ve worked around PhDs and it’s so true.
Hey, Keith…
The Moon Village Association co-organized an event with ESA this week re: how and why non-aerospace firms could become part of humanity and the Moon. A good set of panelists, I think (I was one) plus discussion. I believe the video is available online. If not, please let me know and I’ll gladly track down the link.
Best, – John
Arctic science station or oil rig? One has the PhDs, the other not so much. What each model can tell us about the blue-collar workers on
the Moon question is all about the next question – are we merely there in passing or there to stay? The best and brightest in the Arctic come and go, not much different from the oil rig workers. If humans are one day to become a spacefaring civilization, we should re-think if that “spacefaring” part entrenches us into an Arctic or an oil rig model. We would be spacefaring, taking a trip, but not leaving Earth for the last time. If one day extracting resources on the Moon, the oil rig model, we might get to the democratization of space travel, blue collar and all, a pedestrian affair no longer news worthy (until you get a Deepwater Horizon). We’d also still be passing through.
So jump further ahead, to when we are a multi-planetary species. Now the blue-collar world is a practical necessity, unless these societies figure out how to take the toddlers all the way through their lives until the one born (and allowed by other math) must replace Dr. Geologist #4. This is as unlikely as it is an exercise in uncertainty, uncertainty about the society’s new culture, norms, and government.
The blue collar question must drag along the question of not just spacefaring, but space living. When we begin our shift to a multi-planetary species starting with a thousand PhDs, you end with either a very much more diverse society, not just blue collar, but the artist, the writer, the dancer, or limited other healthy options. The poor alternatives here are a Draconian society assigning station at birth, controlling every aspect of people’s lives, or you end with a riot on your hands and a whole lot of people blown out the airlock.
The blue collar in space question isn’t about who’s passing through, it’s about the shape of human societies living in space and calling it
home.
I would imagine it will still be a best of the best type of pecking order for who gets to go to Luna. So they may not hold a PHD but I have known more than a few technicians that had, in effect, a world class PHD in practical work experience. I think it will be the sharpest crayons in the box handing waste management.
This discussion is a bit premature, although fascinating. I’m pretty sure that the load on the environmental support caused by a large number of residents is going to be the determining factor for growth of any Lunar surface station. As a result of my wild assumption, all of the blue-collar jobs are going to be collateral duties for quite a while.
Alan Steele explored this in his book Orbital Decay, about a bunch of blue collar construction workers in LEO.
https://www.amazon.com/Orbi…
So did I in my “Crater” series set in a lunar mining town.